Saturday, February 22, 2014

The osteoporosis drug raloxifene, primarily prescribed for post-menopausal women, may also be able to treat triple-negative breast cancer, according to research published in Cell Death and Disease.

In lab tests, researchers found that the drug, marketed under the brand name Evista, killed human TNBC cells as well as liver cancer cells. Raloxifene binds with a protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and kills cancer cells that do not have receptors for estrogen. Included in the study was an analysis of data on women who had estrogen-negative breast cancers, in which researchers found increased survival rates in the women whose breast cancers had higher levels of the AhR protein.

Raloxifene would have to go through clinical trials, showing its effects on women rather than just on cells in the lab, before it can become an approved therapy, but,under the Affordable Care Act, most health insurance plans are now required to offer raloxifene at no cost to women who have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

A nuclear protein called Twist may provide an effective approach for treating triple-negative breast cancer, according to a recent study published in Cancer Cell. Twist is an accelerant of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in human cells, which is significant because TNBC has an activated EMT program. EMT provides tumor cells with stem cell-like characteristics, making them resistant to chemotherapy and increasing their chances for early metastasis.

Researchers found that Twist interacted with a key nuclear transcription regulator, BRD4. When many DNA viruses (such as papillomaviruses) enter into human “host” cells during infection, they hijack host cell machinery to replicate and synthesize their viral DNA and proteins. BRD4 is the virus's favored molecule and is often seized by DNA papillomaviruses for gene transcription during replication and growth.

The study showed that two BRD4 inhibitors, JQ1 and MS417, can specifically disrupt the interaction of Twist with BRD4, resulting in the suppression of triple-negative breast cancer cells.

"This finding has significant clinical ramification, because drugs that can target the Twist-BRD4 interaction provide a new hope for treating life-threatening triple-negative breast cancer," said lead researcher Peter Zhou, associate professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Significant increases in body mass index are associated with an increased risk of triple-negative breast cancer, according to research published in the journal Cancer, produced by the American Cancer Society. In the study, women who went up ten points or more—from, for example, a BMI of 22 to one of 32—between the ages of 18 and 44 doubled their risk of TNBC. There was no increased risk of estrogen-positive breast cancer.The sampling included women ages 20 to 44 years who were diagnosed from 2004 to 2010 in the Seattle-Puget Sound metropolitan area:• 779 with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer•182 triple-negative breast cancer• 60 with ER-negative/HER2-overexpressing, invasive breast cancer• 939 cancer-free controls. This supports a fairly large body of research that has associated weight gain with TNBC risk.

Young women who smoke and have been smoking a pack a day for a decade or more have a significantly increased risk of developing hormone-positive breast cancer, but smoking is not related to a woman’s risk of triple-negative breast cancer, according to a new analysis published online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The majority of recent studies evaluating the relationship between smoking and breast cancer risk among young women have found that smoking is linked with an increased risk; however, few studies have evaluated risks according to different subtypes of breast cancer.To investigate, Christopher Li, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and his colleagues conducted a population-based study consisting of 778 patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer and 182 patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Patients in the study were 20 to 44 years old and were diagnosed from 2004-2010 in the Seattle-Puget Sound metropolitan area. The study also included 938 cancer-free controls.The researchers found that young women who were current or recent smokers and had been smoking a pack a day for at least 10 years had a 60 percent increased risk of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. “The health hazards associated with smoking are numerous and well known. This study adds to our knowledge in suggesting that with respect to breast cancer, smoking may increase the risk of the most common molecular subtype of breast cancer but not influence risk of one of the rarer, more aggressive subtypes,” said Dr. Li.Previous research has also shown that postmenopausal women who smoke do not face an
increased risk of TNBC, according to research using data from the Women's
Health Initiative. The study enrolled 148,030 women, 300 of whom had TNBC and
2,479 of whom had estrogen-positive disease. Smoking and alcohol use were both
associated with ER-positive breast cancer, but not with TNBC. The research was
published in Cancer Causes Control
(2011).* BUT: An older study showed just the opposite. A 2001 study in the International Journal of Cancer found evidence that smoking—even for those who gave up the
habit—was associated with an increased risk of hormone-negative breast
cancer. In this long-term study, 10,902 women, 35 percent of whom were smokers, were followed for an
average of 12.4 years. Those who smoked had an increased risk of
hormone-negative breast cancer, but not of hormone-positive. Ex-smokers specifically had an increased risk
of progesterone-negative breast cancer.**

As many of you have observed from personal experience, doctors disagree on the definition of an adequate surgical margin in a lumpectomy. To reduce confusion, worry and unnecessary second surgeries yet maintain excellent outcomes, the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) has created a "definitive guideline."

Roughly 25 percent of breast cancer patients return to the operating room following lumpectomies to obtain more normal tissue around the cancer, and this often results in mastectomies. In about half of these cases, the tumor has been removed and the margin is free of cancer cells, but doctors have believed that a larger amount of normal breast tissue might reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.

The new guideline: No cancerous cells should touch the edge of the lumpectomy specimen. Beyond that, additional surgery is not effective. This is true for women of all ages and with all forms of breast cancer, including triple-negative.

To develop the guideline, an expert methodologist conducted a comprehensive review of the available scientific evidence. Leaders in surgical oncology, radiation oncology, medical oncology, pathology and patient advocacy then met to review the findings and develop a consensus.

"Our hope is that this guideline will ultimately lead to significant reductions in the high re-excision rate for women with early-stage breast cancer undergoing breast conserving surgery. Based on the consensus panel's extensive review of the literature, the vast majority of re-excisions are unnecessary because disease control in the breast is excellent for women with early-stage disease when radiation and hormonal therapy and/or chemotherapy are added to a woman's treatment plan," said Meena S. Moran, MD, Associate Professor of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center and co-chair of the Margin Consensus Panel.

You can download the guidelines and accompanying research on the SSO's website.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Targeting
androgen and vitamin D receptors could be an effective treatment for
triple-negative breast cancer, according to a new study published online
in the Journal of
Clinical Investigation.

Researchers
studied more than 15,000 normal breast cells and discovered eleven previously
undefined cell subtypes, which they then categorized into four new hormonal
groups characterized by vitamin D, androgen and estrogen hormone receptor
expression.

The study
results suggest that two-thirds of triple-negative patients may be candidates
for androgen and vitamin D-targeted hormone therapy. Perhaps equally important,
researchers found that some breast tumor subtypes, such as basal-like, have
been classified erroneously due to inaccurate definition of normal cell types.

"[E]arly
data suggest that targeting androgen and vitamin D receptors in addition to
standard chemotherapy may increase effectiveness, and may allow for lower doses
of chemotherapy with the same effect." according to the study's first
study author, Sandro Santagata, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH)
Department of Pathology, and senior study author Tan A. Ince MD, PhD,
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "We have much more to learn
about why normal breast cells are so diverse and how that information can help
us better improve the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of breast cancer
patients."

A good deal of
previous research has linked androgen to TNBC. One study, presented
at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in 2012, suggested that androgen
might be included in the definition of TNBC. Another study,
also presented at SABCS,
successfully tested a prostrate drug, which targets androgens, on TNBC. And
a host of studies have shown that vitamin D deficiencies are linked to all
types of breast cancer, including TNBC.

Please support this site with your donations—that's the ONLT thing that keeps it going. Plus, if you donate just $25 you'll receive a copy of my book, Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Click the Donate button on the right to donate through PayPal. You'll then get an email from me asking if you want the book, how you want it signed and where you want it sent. And if you just want to donate without receiving the book, that's wonderful. Thanks! And hugs.

Monday, February 3, 2014

If you have a family history or any other risk factors, such as the BRCA mutation, yearly mammograms are still recommended. And, always do good self exams.

Adoption of new guidelines recommending screening mammography every two years for women ages 50 to 74 would result in breast cancer screening that is equally effective, while saving the United States $4.3 billion a year in health care costs, according to a study led by UC San Francisco.

The study compares three possible mammography screening strategies with a model of current U.S. screening practices.

The article appears on February 4, 2014 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The authors call for the adoption of guidelines developed in 2009 by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Under those guidelines, in addition to biennial screening for women age 50 to 74, women age 40 to 49 would be screened according to other risk factors, and women 75 and older would be screened depending on the presence or absence of other diseases.

The study was led by Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA, professor of surgery and radiology at UCSF and an internationally known leader in the field of breast cancer.

“The USPSTF guidelines are based on the best scientific evidence to date,” said Esserman, director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Care Center. “What we need now is a better way to assess breast cancer risk and implement a more risk-based approach to screening. We have demonstrated that the resources for doing this are already in the system. We should redirect them to learning, enabling change, and improving outcomes.”

According to the authors’ estimate, approximately 70 percent of women in the U.S. were screened for breast cancer in 2010, at a cost of $7.8 billion. Some women are screened annually, some biennially, and some are screened on an irregular basis.

The scientists compared this current picture of breast cancer screening with three simulated models: annual screening of 85 percent of women age 40 to 84, in accordance with recommendations from the American Cancer Society and many other policymaking organizations, at an annual estimated cost of $10.1 billion; biennial screening of 85 percent of women age 50 to 70, in line with guidelines used in many European countries, at an annual estimated cost of $2.6 billion; and screening in accordance with USPSTF recommendations, which the authors estimate would cost $3.5 billion per year at a screening rate of 85 percent.

“Over the last decade, in study after study, it has become very clear that – apart from limited, specific high risk groups – biennial screening is as effective as annual screening mammography,” said Esserman. “At the same time, annual screening is associated with a greater likelihood of false positive results, which have an adverse impact on women’s well-being and quality of life. From the viewpoint of women’s health, the USPSTF screening recommendations make sense.

“We can go one step further and learn who is at risk for what kind of breast cancer, and over time, further tailor screening by adjusting the age to start and frequency as well as include recommendations for prevention,” Esserman said.

Lead author Cristina O’Donoghue, MD, currently at the University of Illinois at Chicago but with UCSF at the time of the study, noted that the billions of dollars saved from avoiding less-effective mammography screening could be used to improve women’s health.

“We could increase women’s participation in screening, improve routine assessment of breast cancer risk and referral services for women at high risk, offer better genetic counseling for women with a family history of breast cancer and work on improving the quality of screening, with an emphasis on higher-quality mammography read by specialized mammographers,” said O’Donoghue. “These would be only some of the potential benefits of using our health care resources more intelligently.”

Saturday, February 1, 2014

A virus similar to the one that helped eradicate
smallpox might be effective against triple-negative breast cancer,
according to research published in the February 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

Researchers successfully infected and killed TNBC cells using a
vaccinia virus. In addition, they used the virus to cause infected cancer cells
produce a cell surface protein called hNIS that normally is used to concentrate
iodine in thyroid cells. The hNIS protein, expressed in thyroid cancer, is why
most thyroid cancers can be cured or successfully treated with a small dose of
radioactive iodine. If TNBC cells can be forced to produce this protein, that
means targeted therapy for this cancer—sort of the holy grail we have been
seeking.

"This is an important and significant discovery that
basically combines proven cures for two other diseases," said Gerald
Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Even
more exciting is that the effects of this virus and radioactive iodine are well
known in people, hopefully reducing the amount of time it will take for it to
reach the clinic."

This research supports an earlier study showing
success with the smallpox vaccine against TNBC. The next step for both is
clinical trials. Let's hope that this new evidence helps speed that
process.

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Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Hope, Treatment, Recovery

Finally! A book about TNBC written by a woman who's been through it—Patricia Prijatel, founder and editor of this blog. If you like this blog, you'll love this book.

Patricia Prijatel

Founder of Positives About Negative and author of Surviving Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Top Cancer Blog

From Symphony Sisterhood

Welcome

When I was diagnosed with hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer, I required a positive attitude of myself—I was not going to let a disease have the upper hand. I hope I can share some at that attitude with you while I offer what I have learned in my trek through this disease as a patient and medical writer.

It's a given that life ends in death. Cancer just makes you face that inevitability more directly than you might have before. To me, that means living fully right now.

Three Mountain Dogs, a children's book by Patricia Prijatel

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks hormone receptors for estrogen, progesterone, and Her2/neu. It affects about 20 percent of all those with breast cancer. This blog offers information and hope for those with TNBC and other forms of hormone-negative breast cancer.

Calm Spirit Note Cards

Blank greeting cards with the Calm Spirit image are available in packets of 6. They're ideal for sending a personal message of encouragement to anyone living with cancer. Boxes of six are available for $10.00 and can be ordered by contacting my friend Madlyn at madlyn.ferraro@ gmail com. Individual cards are $2.50 each.